[MUSIC] In this interview, we're going to be exploring the concept of networking and what networking means in different situations. Many of us will have heard the words, many of us will have thought, perhaps we're really good at networking. Some of us might have thought, as I did when I worked in the corporate world, networking wasn't perhaps a priority. I looked back, perhaps now we reflect slightly differently but, nevertheless networking is something that applies to us all in different situations. What we're going to do now is to talk with Claire Taylor about her experiences networking. Both in the corporate world, when Claire worked in the marketing and branding functions at senior level. And also networking in the consultancy world. And also networking as Claire is now, when she's working as co-founder of the Story Mill. So Claire, how did your experience in networking begin when you worked in the corporate world in your marketing and branding roles? >> So, very much related to what you said, David, which is what in the corporate world, early days, I didn't actually think I needed to network. I just didn't think about it, there were people there, you were working with them, they would you phone you, you were constantly getting when email came because there was no email when I first began my career, that your phone rang, emails came, all of that. You had these relationships that you built, you worked with people over a period of time. So, what changed that for me was, do you remember Daniel Goldman and he wrote this book a number of years ago, but now. And everybody was talking about emotional intelligence, right? And there was an emotional intelligence questionnaire which was the EIIDQ. [LAUGH] Okay. >> All right. I remember. >> So I completed the EIIDQ once and I got really interesting feedback that of the areas that I was strong on and all of that. But the one area that came back that I needed to build on was my personal connectedness, okay? >> Right. >> Because which is your networking, essentially. >> Yes. >> How broad your network is. And what I did notice is that, although people who were working with me in the corporate environment, some of them had a very broad range of connections and they were really good at doing that. So at that time, I was working for the UK affiliate of a pharma company. And other people who were doing the same sort of thing would have a bunch of international connections, they often have connections outside of the company with other companies and this really sort of broad network and people on speed dial that they would phone up and all of that. And they would also network very well with the customers and I wasn't really doing any of that. I think, probably, what was the biggest game changer for me was LinkedIn. >> Right. >> I think LinkedIn was probably the biggest game changer. Partly, I think it depends on your personality type as to whether you've got everybody on speed dial or not. >> [LAUGH] >> I mean some people just do that naturally don't they? It's just kind of who they are and for me I found that it wasn't something that I kind of naturally did, was it, give me your number we go for it. It just wasn't something that I automatically did. But with LinkedIn, that was a great opportunity to connect with people and keep in touch. It just was so much easier to keep in touch with somebody to pop them a quick LinkedIn message and say how are things? Than it was to sort of pick the phone up which almost felt like an interruption to their day. And I would have the thought, gosh, are they going to be busy now I'm going to leave a message, then they'll call me back and all of that. So for me social media was a big game changer. And I remember having left one corporate organization and I was doing my contracting work at the time, my consultancy work. And just sending a LinkedIn message to an old contact to say, do you need some help? And within a couple of days I was having a conversation with him and within a week I was working on a project with him. When I also finished a consultancy project a few years ago and just as I was about to finish it, I got a LinkedIn message that just went help with four exclamation marks from an old colleague. >> Right. >> Said could you help us to do this. So yeah, I think it's just a really great, easy way to network and keep in touch with people that you've known and met already through the corporate world. I'd also say, over time, I began to kind of value creating those connections and staying in touch with people much, much more. And LinkedIn kind of underpinned a shift for me in awareness that, that was something that I really needed to be doing. >> A number of key things we've heard Claire share with us already. Consistent throughout though, whatever the context, networking is about making connections. And for Claire the game changer was LinkedIn. Running alongside that I think we've also heard is about Claire looking at the need to network slightly differently from the early days in the corporate world, running alongside the emergence of LinkedIn, actually to fill in the need and recognizing the importance of making these connections. When you look back on the earlier days then, when you perhaps didn't network and you got that feedback that you said your personal connectivity perhaps wasn't what others had expected. >> Mm-hm. >> That's always the start point with feedback, isn't it? If you were to look back on your corporate experience, in terms of networking, would you have done anything differently? >> Well yes, I think having that kind of awareness, I would have just made more conscious of doing that. So, I guess it was an evolution as part of my learning as you go through your career. But yes, I would have done it earlier had I had that awareness. I think a lot, often that's why these things are useful, because they trigger an insight for you. And you kind of have this a-ha moment where you go, okay. I've been doing a lot of this. And I could be doing more of that. And I guess it wasn't even really an expectation of anybody else of me. It was just, when you do this things your results just go versus a cohort of a standard cohort and whatever and mine was just slightly low. And so it was an area were that I discussed and thought, actually, yeah that's something I will focus on. And yeah, so had I known sooner, I would've done it sooner. Yeah, yeah. >> Although, from what you shared with us, in the corporate world, so like when my corporate experience began, pre-email, we still had phone conversations, we still had face to face conversations. So more of an informal type of networking. But you also mentioned people in the corporate world who would have key contacts on speed dial. >> Yes. >> I had colleagues in the corporate world and I'm sure they spent their career networking. I'm not quite sure what happened to the day job. But then when LinkedIn comes in and when social media comes in, it's almost as if the way in which we network changes. >> Yeah, I think that's right. I think that what used to happen was you'd leave a company and then within 18 months you'd completely lost track of everybody was because people would have moved on. And it wasn't that I didn't make relationships with people or sometimes sit down and have a coffee with somebody or do these sorts of things. I just think that with social media we've become much more aware of making these connections, the value of relationships. Yeah, I think that has been such a game changer for networking as well as for me personally. >> So, we have the immediacy that technology gives us through social media work, networks like LinkedIn. >> Yes. >> You can do it straightaway. And also numbers you can contact a lot more people more quickly. Would you say that there was a difference between formal networking and informal networking? >> I would definitely, yeah. I guess it depends on how well you know people on the one hand as to whether you're going to filling them or how easy it is to message them. If we talk about in two, I'll talk about it in two ways, so one is the face-to-face stuff. Back in around 2009, I got into sort of form of networking, joining networking groups. And I led a sort of cohort of a networking group, so a regular meeting. And I had a lot of fun actually doing that and I met a lot of people that I hadn't known. And it was a group that was really floundering for this organization and I said I would take it on, because I was interested in doing that. And we got to a point where before Christmas we were, we had so many people coming that we actually to say, I'm sorry, it's full. >> Wow. >> Because I would ring everybody and say are you coming and all of that. And people who hadn't been there for ages would go well since you've phoned me, I'll come. And I enjoy doing that, however I didn't find that particularly useful, given that a lot of my background is corporate and a lot of people I work with are either very large, kind of public organizations or they're corporate organizations. And a lot of the people who are coming to this form of networking, they were running smaller kinds of organizations or running something, running their own sort of consultancy. So, in the time I did was just about four months, I didn't find that terribly useful. Now, yet I know people who do find that incredibly useful and they talk about selling through the room rather than to the person that you're actually having the conversation with. So I know it works brilliantly well for some people and they've ended up getting to work with some great clients and being asked to write books and all sorts of things as a result. For me the other side that I guess is kind of informal side on networking which is, and I think of that in two ways, one is meeting up with the people you know and keeping those relations going. Activities that you like to do in your life. So if you like to play golf or if you like to, what I like to do, photography. Or if you like to play tennis or whatever, then there's the chance to meet people through those things. And often what you're trying to do through networking, as I see it anyway, and they have the need, like, know, trust mantra, don't they, you want to like somebody, you want to have a certain chemistry with them and build trust with them. And often when you're doing a different kind of activity, you really see what that person is like and you get that chance to say, would we work together or shall just be drinking buddies [LAUGH] or coffee friends? And I prefer that personally from a face-to-face networking point of view. Then when you get into the LinkedIn, there's keeping in touch with people that you know and then there's the chance to make introductions to people that you don't know. I think it's an area where you got to be really careful. It is my experience that you don't kind of drive people mad. >> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] And yeah, and I think most of have had this experience, where somebody connects with us on LinkedIn and then ten minuets later they send is a message with a big long list of their services. You just think so, I often think of it a little bit like dating- >> [LAUGH] >> It's like in that sort of sense. You just wouldn't do that if you were dating somebody, would you? It's step by step. So, I think, sometimes on social media, people forget [LAUGH] their manners and they don't want to take the time to actually build a relationship with somebody. And I get a lot of the natural network and what we're trying to do in formal networking is we're trying to mirror relationships that have been formed at school or in university, or early on in jobs. And these sorts of things, we're trying to sort of mirror that and kind of make it happen with more people. And I think relationships still need time, and there needs to be the right sort of chemistry, and the right sort of sense of, yeah, can we do something together or not. That's just my experience of it. >> And there, really, really a number of different scenarios that Claire has shared with us. And what we're learning, is that as we look to build networks, there are a number of key variables that we need to think about. And for each of us, so for Claire, for me, for each of you, at different moments and different times, these variables will have different relative importance. And so for example, are we going to build networks face to face? And if so, how are we going to build that relationship based on frequency on trust, on likeability, on respect, on common ground, on common purpose, for example? Or are we going to have informal networks for those coffee meetings, or down at the tennis club or the golf club, or in a photography situation. Or is it going to be through technology where initially at least it's a bit more remote? And so therefore the way in which you look to build that relationship is necessarily going to be different than if it was face to face. So the way in which you need to think about the other party or parties in a networking situation needs to change because you can't see them directly. You need to think before you act, perhaps a little bit more when you're going through LinkedIn or through other means of social networking. But what we have learned Is that thematically in almost every situation that we're in everyday, we will be either formally or informally, either directly or indirectly through social media, and Linkedin is the example T=that Claire primarily has shared with us. We will be networking in one way or the other because we know that it's very very important that we do. >> Thank you very much Claire. >> Thank you David. [MUSIC]
